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• April 30, 2011 50¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
Facebook allots Residents urge restraint on cuts $95K in grants By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
Crook County schools get $25K By Jordan Novet The Bulletin
Central and Eastern Oregon residents urged state legislators not to cut too deeply into government services at a meeting of the Ways and Means Committee at Oregon State University-Cascades Campus on Friday afternoon. The committee, made up of members of the state House and Senate, is touring the state to hear from Oregonians who could be affected by cuts
Facebook is giving almost $25,000 to the Crook County School District as part of the company’s annual grant program. The school district’s allotment accounts for a quarter of the total grant funding distributed by the company this year. Most of the money — roughly $95,000 — will go to Crook County nonprofits. Crook County will use its Facebook funds to buy graphing calculators, smart pads, digital recording software and physical education equipment, among other things, according to an April 21 post on the Prineville Data Center’s Facebook page. In addition, the company will provide several reconditioned Apple MacBook laptops — previously used by employees — to Crook County High School and Crooked River Elementary School. Rosie Honl, head physical education teacher at Crook County High School, applied for a $4,600 grant to buy heart monitors and other equipment for her students, she said. Two weeks later, Facebook announced it would provide $2,000. “I was just flabbergasted, excited,” Honl said. For three years, she said, there has been no money for her to spend on the school’s physical education program. Soon, she said, thanks to the grant, students will have new footballs, basketballs, volleyballs, badminton rackets and tennis rackets. Facebook’s presence in Prineville seems to have come at a good time for the Crook County School District, as it faces reductions in state and local funding. See Facebook / A6
to the state budget. As the Legislature’s budgetwriting arm, the committee will produce the first draft of the 2011-2013 budget, which is expected to trim spending on social services and education to close a projected budget deficit. More than 100 people filled Cascades Hall for Friday’s hearing, with dozens more appearing by videoconference from La Grande and Pendleton. In over two hours of testimony, residents focused on three primary areas of concern — education,
services for the disabled, and the agricultural programs provided by the OSU Extension Service. Backers of OSU-Cascade and Central Oregon Community College noted the rapid growth in enrollment at both schools, and said insufficient state support is creating a financial burden on students. Bend Mayor Jeff Eager told the committee the two schools help create a more diverse local economy not so dependent on real estate and home construction. See Cuts / A6
Scattered by storms, lost items turn up on Web page
TIME TO CHECK BACKFLOW PREVENTERS
By Amy Harmon New York Times News Service
Immigration Customs Enforcement via The Associated Press
This ultralight aircraft carrying 253 pounds of marijuana was seized in 2008 near Tucson, Ariz. Records show 228 aircraft incursions in 2010.
As borders tighten, drug smugglers fly By Elliot Spagat and Amanda Lee Myers The Associated Press
CALEXICO, Calif. — The visiting British pilots were training near a naval air station one night this month when their helicopter came within about 150 feet of an ultralight plane flying without lights. The ulInside tralight darted away toward • As border crossings Mexico without a trace. The near-disaster over plunge, agents fight boredom, Page A8 the Southern California desert was an example of drug smugglers using lowflying aircraft that look like motorized hang gliders to circumvent new fences along the U.S. border with Mexico. The planes, which began appearing in Arizona three years ago, are now turning up in remote parts of California and New Mexico. And in a new twist, the planes rarely touch the ground. Pilots simply pull levers that drop aluminum bins filled with about 200 pounds of marijuana for drivers who are waiting on the ground with blinking lights or glow-sticks. Within a few minutes, the pilots are back in Mexico. “It’s like dropping a bomb from an aircraft,” said Jeffrey Calhoon, chief of the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector, which stretches through alfalfa farms, desert scrub and sand dunes in southeast California. See Smugglers / A6
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Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Bend Backflow Testing’s David Doerr holds a backflow-measuring device while working at a customer’s home in Bend Wednesday afternoon.
All irrigation systems need inspection, but rules vary tilizers, dirt and animal feces. But depending on where you live and who provides your water, the cost and reContrary to what recent snow flurries might indicate, warmer weather means ir- • How to inspect your sponsibility of backflow testing can vary. backflow preventer There’s also a difference in whose water rigation season is nearly upon us. properly, Page A7 you could potentially contaminate if your For those with lawns, that means it’s albackflow device fails. It could only be you, most time to turn on the sprinklers and or it could be your neighbors as well. watch those non-native grasses turn green. “This is very serious,” said Steven Vieira, who heads It also means people in cities like Bend and Redmond must get their backflow prevention devices the city of Bend’s Safe Drinking Water Program. “It tested to make sure they’re not contaminating local only takes one event for customers to get sick.” drinking water supplies with substances such as ferSee Backflow / A7
By Nick Grube
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“I feel like I know these people. They could so easily have been us.” — Patty Bullion, creator of Facebook page for items lost in this week’s storms
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The tornado that killed Emily Washburn’s grandfather this week also destroyed his Mississippi home, leaving his family with nothing to remember him by — until a picture of him holding the dog he loved surfaced on Facebook, posted by a woman who found it Inside in her office • More than parking lot, 175 300 dead; miles away in Obamas tour Tennessee. devastated Like hunAlabama city, dreds of others finding keepPage A3 sakes that fell from the sky and posting photographs of them on a surreal Facebook lost and found, the woman included her e-mail address, and Washburn wrote immediately: “That man is my granddaddy. It would mean a lot to me to have that picture.” Created by Patty Bullion, 37, of Lester, Ala., a page on the social networking site has so far reunited dozens of storm survivors with their prized — and in some cases, only — possessions: a high school diploma that landed in a Lester front yard was traced to its owner in Tupelo, Miss., for example. A woman who lost her home in the tiny town of Phil Campbell, Ala., claimed her homemade quilt found in Athens, Ala., nearly 50 miles away: “Phil Campbell Class of 2000,” it read. But the page is also turning social networking software designed to help friends stay in touch into an unexpected meeting ground for strangers. Along with the photographs of found items are the comments of well-wishers and homespun detectives speculating as to the identities of their owners. For those spared by the storms that ravaged large swathes of the south, the page is a bridge to its victims, a way to offer solace and to share in their suffering. See Storms / A8
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ROYAL WEDDING: Billions watch William, Kate marry, Page A2
SYRIA: U.S. announces sanctions as crackdown intensifies, Page A3